Obama On Health Care: “The Law I Passed Is Here To Stay”

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign event at the Wolcott House Museum Complex in Maumee, Ohio July 5, 2012. Obama is on a two-day campaign bus tour of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

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MAUMEE, Ohio — President Barack Obama said that after the Supreme Court upheld his signature health care law last week, the bill isn’t going anywhere.

“I’ll work with anybody who wants to work with me to continue to improve our health care system and our health care laws, but the law I passed is here to stay,” Obama said in Maumee, where he kicked off a two-day bus tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Republicans and Mitt Romney, who has pledged to make repealing the law the first item on his agenda if elected, have redoubled their efforts to repeal the law, saying the Court’s ruling has clarified the choice in November — that to repeal the law you must replace the president.

Obama defended the Affordable Care Act, saying it’s not time to take the country backward.

“I’m running because I believe that in American no one should go bankrupt because they get sick,” Obama added. He said he wants to “try and move forward and make sure that every American has affordable health insurance and that the insurance companies are treating them fairly. That’s what we fought for, that’s what we’re going to keep. We are moving forward.”